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Box Office:

There isn't much to say about the film's domestic theatrical potential, since it's technically a straight-to-DVD release in the states. This is the fifth DVD feature revolving around the Disney Fairies franchise, which has spawned off into a legion of toys, clothes, and about six billion books. The previous four features were all straight-to-DVD releases that sold around $50 million worth of DVD and Blu Rays a pop since 2008. The last entry, Secret of the Wings, had a decent-sized overseas release and earned $51m abroad. That this one is somewhat higher profile is arguably (and unfortunately?) due to its somewhat star-studded cast. You cast Christina Hendricks as the title character and Tom Hiddleston as one of the main supporting characters and more people take notice.

The film drops on DVD on April 1st, but my family and I saw it during the opening weekend of its three-week run at Disney's El Capitan theater. I can't speak to the Blu Ray (I'm sure it looks and sounds great) or the quality of the individual extras, but I can speak to an entertaining theatrical experience. It's no secret that the El Capitan, located in downtown Hollywood, has what amounts to a pre-show before most of their screenings. In this case, it was a 15-minute sing-and-dance along set to the theme songs of the various Disney Jr. shows followed by a brief appearance from Tinker Bell herself. I write a lot about the value of the theatrical exhibition, and this was a prime example.

The movie is fine family entertainment, undone only by certain plot flaws that arguably only I would care about. But the quality of the presentation, the feeling that it was an event, somewhat elevated the film. Obviously what we got for our El Capitan tickets, where the preshow culminated in our two-year old son literally dancing in his chair to the Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme song, can't necessarily be replicated for every theater or for ever film. But this kind of periodic "event movie going", best exemplified by Paramount's "Super Ticket" gimmicks over the past year, certainly help both the film being sold and the long-term appeal of theatrical exhibition. What will be worth watching is if The Pirate Fairy sells any more DVDs and Blu-Rays as a result of this comparatively more aggressive push.

I question the fairness of using grown up movie stars to voice characters in a straight-to-DVD feature pitched at very young children, as professional voice actors have a hard enough time with would-be celebrities taking so many of the theatrical voice over roles, but that's my pet peeve. Yet it's hard to argue with the resulting marketing boom, and it should be noted that the film contains a murder's row of voice actors (Jeff Bennett, Rob Paulson, Kevin Michael Richardson, etc.) in supporting roles. Would all of the movie sites have posted a clip of Hiddleston singing his big number his his character was played by Graham McTavish? Will the presence of Hiddleston and Hendricks among others make this fifth Tinker Bell movie more of an event than the last four? We'll see...

The Review:

It's tempting to merely write off a film like The Pirate Fairy with a simple "It's fine." It's a direct-to-DVD animated feature explicitly intended for the youngest of theoretical female viewers and their brothers who don't have an aversion to gender-specific entertainments. As colorful and engaging entertainment for its core demographic, it is a perfectly satisfying motion picture. It's full of rich colors, strong (if comparatively lower budgeted) animation, decent vocal performances by a mix of celebrities and professional voice over actors, and a story that is mostly engaging until it wimps out at the end and undercuts its own arc. On that note, there are a few nitpicks that are worth discussing.

The plot concerns the fairies of Pixie Hollow as they attempt to chase down a former member who was banished for a calamitous accident and now travels as captain of a merry group of pirates. After Zarina (Hendricks) steals the stash of all-important Blue Pixie Dust and imperils the entire land, her five former friends and colleagues (Tinker Bell and company) must give chase. Can Tink and her friends convince their former friend to renounce her evil ways and bring her back into the fold, or will the would-be Pirate Fairy choose her new-found brethren and a life of relative freedom? This is as good a moral dilemma as any, although the film sadly never forces her to make it.

The film ironically shares the same core narrative flaw as Lone Scherfig's An Education. That 2009 Oscar nominee which "announced" Carey Mulligan undercut its own morality by taking the lead character's moral choice away from her by virtue of a major betrayal. I won't go into details, even if the marketing has released spoilery material, but Zarina never has to make a choice. The choice is made for her due to third-party influence, and as a result the film is able to end on a somewhat comforting but less-than-compelling fashion. The film sets up a classic freedom vs. responsibility, roots vs. independence, good vs. evil narrative yet never allows our main character to choose her own fate.

It may sound like I'm being overly critical of what many will view as a glorified babysitter. From a consumer standpoint, what could I possibly say that would effect whether or not a parent would choose to purchase this for their kids aside from reassuring them that it's inoffensive both in its content and its morality? In that very limited sense, The Pirate Fairy is an unmitigated triumph. But we film critics judge films not specifically intended for our given demographics all the time, be it kid-friendly fare or film critics predisposed to detest horror films reviewing a given Saw sequel. I would not insult those who created this film by not judging it on the same relative scale that I would have had it been intended for theaters.

Planes is a mostly effective, mostly harmless (grumble-gender roles-grumble), and superbly animated trifle that earned most of its scorn purely by virtue of its theatrical release and its loose connections to the Pixar Cars franchise, yet I don't begrudge those who judged it on the same scale that they would an actual Pixar release. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is arguably not intended for the same audience that ruthlessly analyzes something like Inside Llewellyn Davis, yet it is not nor should it be given a pass due to its limited audience. As such is the case with The Pirate Fairy. The Pirate Fairy deserves as clinical a critical analysis as Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

If I'm overly judgmental, it's because the film was working rather splendidly right up until it stubbed its own narrative toe at at the end. It's an engaging and entertaining adventure story, refreshingly centered around a group of distinct female characters and even directed by a woman (Peggy Holmes) to boot. Its intentions are admirable and the animation is pretty strong for a direct-to-DVD feature. Ironically the only vocal performance I take issue with is Tom Hiddleston, as he is just a bit hammier than the rest while also being stuck with the worst lines of the bunch.

In an era when boy-centric genre fare gets treated like the most important things ever while female-centric fare gets either ignored or dismissed (or has to fight to be taken seriously), it's worth pointing out that Walt Disney didn't cheap out or go lazy for this fifth entry in this long-running franchise, instead going a bit above-and-beyond both in its construction and its promotion. The Pirate Fairy is more than just good enough. It's simply good.